


Stand By You

by Destril



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Fic-exchage, Force Ghost Han Solo, Han is soft for his Queen, Han loves Leia more then he can ever express, Han stays beind to protect his Princess, Relationship Study, Reunions, SWGenFicmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:41:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29006235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Destril/pseuds/Destril
Summary: Han watches over his Princess.
Relationships: Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: 2020 Star Wars Winter Exchange





	Stand By You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChamiTheJedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChamiTheJedi/gifts).



> This is my gift for ChamiTheJedi!
> 
> This is a little late but a gift for the ficmas exchange we did on out discord server! You said you liked angst so I hope I delivered! Hope you like it, sorry again for the wait!!

Han stares into his son's eyes, Ben's eyes, and feels something settle in him even as the pain fades. There are tears there, that dangerously red saber of his reflects off them, and Han uses every last of his strength to bring his hand up, to lay it on his son's face as the tears threaten to fall. He feels Ben flinch, and he wants to pull him to his chest and hug him as close as he had when he was a child back on the nights on the Falcon when Ben's nightmares would wake him up. 

"Dad."

Ben breathes, so quiet Han isn't sure he actually heard him, his own eyes well as he sees the terror, the pain, the regret.

Then he's falling. 

(-o-)

He wasn't sure how he managed it. Luke had talked about seeing ghosts and how people became part of the Force and all that other bantha shit, and Han had nodded along and agreed with the kid because he was just a good friend like that. He wished now that he had actually listened.

Han stood a few feet away from the podium, watching Leia speak. Speak about him. Because he was dead. Ben had killed him.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been dead. Apparently, time didn't work the same in the Force or wherever he had ended up. All he knew was that he had been falling, then there was just nothing, then he was standing here in this clearing watching his wife give his eulogy. 

He should be more concerned about this, he figured, but he could only stare at her.

Gods, but she was beautiful.

She stood there in the early morning light, shoulders pulled back, head held high, every single piece of her radiant, powerful, resolute. The dappling light caught the simple hairpiece she wore, pulling the graying strand of hair back in a familiar style. It was the one he had learned to do for her while she was pregnant with Ben. It always looked a little crooked, a little looser than if she did it herself, but she always wore it the entire day. It was messier than usual today.

He felt a sad smile pull his lips as he watched her, ever the general, speak with such an easy strength. She had never needed him, but he had realized early on that he needed her more than he had ever admitted. He'd never been a romantic, something she had loved to tease him about, but she had been the best thing to ever happen to him. He should have said that more.

He hoped now that she knew.

He stood next to her as the speech carried on and past that when she had made her ways back to her quarters. They had separate ones towards the end. Things had become tense after Ben left. They still loved each other, but they had needed space, and while he stayed on the Falcon, she didn't have the luxury of being able to just hop in a ship and disappear for a few weeks to cool off and think. 

He should have stayed and tried to work it out, but it was too late for all that now, wasn't it?

She was crying, now. The General was still there, her back straight, face blank and stern, but the tears were running down her face now.

"Oh, Leia." Han breathed as he sunk weightlessly down on the edge of the bed with her. He wanted so badly to pull her close, to stroke her hair and press a kiss to her temple where that one big piece of gray started that he always teased her about despite his own entirely gray mop. 

He did so now, allowing his lips to linger on her skin, wishing he could feel the warmth, but that wasn't possible. 

There was something else there, though, a feeling he hadn't noticed until he was practically pressed against her. A pulsing, soothing touch against him, like a breeze and a soft, soothing sound. He pulled back, and the feeling grew fainter but didn't leave. Was this the Force that Luke always talked about? The energy he'd claimed was a part of everyone and everything, their signature. Wasn't it supposed to be a light or something? Wasn't that how the two had once described it to him?

"Leia? Han called softly, hoping briefly that she would be able to hear him, even though he had already tried several times. 

But just like his previous attempts, it went unnoticed. So he just sat there, holding her as she cried those quiet tears until finally she took a steadying breath, got up, and went back out into the base, the General once more. 

Han stared at the closed door to her quarters for a moment longer before getting up again and following her. He may not have been there for her before, but he would be now. He would always be with her now.

(-o-)

The bridge was chaos, and he watched her take it in stride. That idiot kid Poe was every bit as headstrong as her Highness and every bit as rash as himself. More than once, he had caught himself thinking that Dameron was more his kid than Ben had ever been. That wasn't true, though. He'd been there for Poe even less than he had for Ben. No, Dameron had been raised by the Rebellion, and Leia was nothing if not a mother to their little band of fighters. He could see so much of her in their people's faces and actions it really did feel like he was watching one big family sometimes. 

What would it have been like if he had been around to be a part of it?

Probably a lot more dumb decisions and daring maneuvers. Maybe it was best he hadn't had as much say? Who would ever know?

Things were spiraling now, though, and as Ties screamed past the massive bridge viewport, he entire being itched to be out there in the Falcon, defending his Princess and the Rebellion with Chewy. 

Time might have blurred again. That seemed to happen when he stopped paying active attention to his surroundings, but suddenly there was screaming, and then the massive viewport was exploding.

Han might have screamed, he couldn't hear in the sudden vacuum that occurred as he watched the bridge crew and Leia, little Gods Leia, be sucked out into that black nothing. He lunged at her as she was yanked from her feet, but as usual, his hand went right through her. 

No, no, no! Not her!

He didn't even think as he threw himself out of the ship after her as she drifted away from the destroyed bridge, her own momentum dragging her further and further from safety. 

Han feared the worst. It was space, it was a vacuum and freezing, and all she had was those thick robes she preferred these days. She was dead. He knew that somewhere in his mind already. She had died the moment the bridge lost pressure, and he was staring at her corpse. 

He finally drew alongside her, and he didn't think ghosts could cry, but this ugly wet sound tore from his chest as he stared down at her ice-encrusted face. She was so gorgeous even then, so peaceful looking, like the mornings he would wake up before and just watch her sleep curled in his arms. Like when everything was still okay, and he was alive, and the galaxy wasn't going to shit, and his princess, his soulmate, wasn't dead, floating alone in space where they would probably never recover her body and give her a proper burial. 

"Leia." He croaked as he curled over her, parts of him fading through her as he did everything in his power to touch her one last time, already knowing that he wasn't leaving her out here alone. He would stay with her here until he couldn't. 

Then he felt it, that little pulsing beat that he had felt around her, except instead of getting weaker, it was getting stronger. Shocked, he jerked back just in time to see her eyes slowly blink open. A startled bark of laughter and disbelief tore from him as she seemed to look right at him. 

"Han." She said, but her lips didn't move. 

She stared right at him. She could see him.

"Han, help me."

And then she was moving and that energy, the Force swirled around her, and she was orienting herself towards the limping remains of the ship, her hand stretching towards him, and he grabbed for it on instinct.

And felt his hand wrap around hers, gripping it tight.

He would never be able to explain what happened in those moments as he carefully pulled her with him, tugging her along gently as he moved them towards the ship, towards safety. The Force was almost burning in its strength and intensity where their hands met, and there were little frozen tears on her lashes as she stared at him, and he couldn't stop the lopsided, boyish grin he gave as their eyes remained locked. 

Around them, the battle meant nothing as he gazed at her, and she stared back, just the two of them in the great big galaxy, linked, clutching to each other as though they would never let go.

Then the ship was around them, and Leia was descended upon by other command staff and medical teams and droid, and she was being whisked away, but all Han could feel was the lingering warmth on his hand from where he had finally touched her.

(-o-)

Han knew it was coming as he watched her lay down, but it still hurt to see her so weakened. He could feel the steady thrum of strength and Force around her as she reached out across the entire galaxy to speak to Ben, to give Rey the chance she needed to win. To keep their son from dooming himself and the world with him. 

"Ben."

Just one word, but it must have been enough because there was this crash of energy in the Force as something monumental changed at that moment. A shift that even someone as null as Han could feel. It shifted their future, but it was all she had left.

As he watched, heart in his throat Leia smiled and leaned back, allowing her hand to fall away from her chest as her breast rose and fell one last time.

Tears fell heavily from Han's eyes as he leaned down from where he was seated on the bed's edge and pressed a soft kiss to her brow, then each of her eyes, and finally a last, lingering one to her lips.

"When was the last time you did that to me like that?" A voice asked from behind him

Without even turning, Han grinned wetly as he stared down at Leia's body. 

"Too long, your Highness."

"It has been, hasn't it?"

Finally, he stood and turned around, and there she was, looking just as young and radiant as he had always seen her, had never stopped seeing her. 

"Hello, you scoundrel, did you miss me?"

"Every single day, Princess."


End file.
